Grapefruit Almond Tart
Imagine, if you will: A rich, buttery, almond-based tart crust. A thick, granular layer of creamy grapefruit almond curd. Slices of fresh pink grapefruit, sweeter, pulp bursting with juice. The crunch of a thin layer of caramelized sugar.
The warmth of the crust, fresh from the oven. Curd and grapefruit, cool from the fridge. The warmth of the sugar just kissed by the blowtorch.
Grapefruit Almond Tart
For the dough
2 C flour
1/2 C almond meal
1/2 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 C butter (slightly softened, but still cold)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
For the filling
Grapefruit almond curd (recipe below)
1 pink grapefruit, separated into peeled slices
Granulated sugar (for sprinkling)
Mix together the dry ingredients for the crust. Add the butter and mix or squish together by hand until the dough reaches a texture like bread crumbs. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until the dough just starts to come together. If necessary, slam it against a hard surface to remove the air bubbles, as you would if working with clay. Form it into a squat, chubby cylinder, and cut the cylinder in half so that you have two disks. Wrap each disk separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate them for at least half an hour, and up to twenty-four hours. Alternatively, you can stick them in the freezer and they’ll keep for a few months. This makes enough dough for two large tarts (or six of the size pictured above), so that may end up being the way to go.
When your dough is chilled, preheat your oven to 425°.
Roll the dough out to about 1/8″ thick and line your buttered and floured tart pan with it. Line the dough carefully with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and lower the oven temperature to 375°. Remove the foil and weights from the tart, and bake the empty shell for another 10 minutes.
Allow the shell to cool, then remove it from the pan. Fill it with a layer of grapefruit almond curd, and place the peeled pink grapefruit slices over that. Sprinkle the pink grapefruit with a heavy layer of sugar. Caramelize the sugar with a kitchen blowtorch.
Grapefruit Almond Curd
1 7/8 C ground almonds
3 organic grapefruit (scrubbed clean)
4 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
7 1/2 tbsp butter
Sterilize jars, an extra bowl, and a sieve. This will make about 2 pints of curd.
Toast the ground almonds in an ungreased pan until they brown very slightly and start to smell extra tasty.
Zest the grapefruit and set the zest aside. Juice the grapefruits, and keep 1 1/2 C juice for the recipe.
In the bowl of a double boiler (or a bowl set above a layer of water in a pot), beat the eggs, then whisk in the sugar, grapefruit juice, and zest. Turn on the heat and bring the water to a simmer. Add the butter and whisk gently as the butter melts. Keep stirring with the whisk (not whisking with it) as the mixture thickens and the eggs cook. The mixture should be thick enough for a spoon to leave a trail behind after about 10-15 minutes of this. Be wary of overcooking lest your eggs curdle.
Remove from heat, strain out the zest by pouring the curd through the sterilized sieve into the sterilized extra bowl. Whisk in the ground almonds. Pour into the sterile jars, leaving about 1/4″ space at the top, and close them up. Process in a boiling water bath for at least 15 minutes to seal. (Make sure the lids pop in as they cool, else the seal did not work out.)
This grapefruit almond curd is basically a variant of Clotilde‘s almond lemon curd, so credit where it is due, certainly.
Such a pretty tart!
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